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Objective

The vision of NOTRE is to develop a network that will strengthen and enhance the potential of the newly established Social Computing Research Centre (SCRC) at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) for stimulating scientific excellence and innovation capacity in the area of social aspects of computing. NOTRE proposes an interdisciplinary approach towards the close network collaboration between SCRC of CUT, a research active university in a low-performing member state, and four internationally-leading counterparts specializing in: (a) online social networks and their analysis; (b) entertainment, games, virtual reality and educational technologies; (c) Social Computing for social inclusion; and (d) Social Computing and social change. SCRC through this proposal does not only aim to access the core research groups of the leading counterparts, and their collaborators, but also recognizes the multidisciplinarity of the field and will try to establish itself as an intermediate between them. The NOTRE network will follow a series of interlinked activities, such as short term staff exchanges, expert visits and short-term on-site training, workshops, conference attendance, organization of joint summer school type activities, and dissemination and outreach activities. Such activities with world-renowned EU partners (IMDEA; MIRALab of Universite de Geneve; Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas -FORTH-ICS; and the Department of Political Science of the University of Dusseldorf -UDUS), will be instrumental for significantly strengthening SCRC's research efforts, enhancing the network's innovation capacity and research profile, and stimulating scientific excellence in the emerging multidisciplinary field of Social Computing. The effective knowledge transfer and sharing through NOTRE will also push for research advancements linked to the Smart Specialization Strategy of Cyprus.

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NOTRE (Network for sOcial compuTing REsearch (NOTRE))

The vision of NOTRE is to develop a network that will strengthen and enhance the potential of the newly established Social Computing Research Centre (SCRC) at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) for stimulating scientific excellence and innovation capacity in the area of social aspects of computing. NOTRE proposes an interdisciplinary approach towards the close network collaboration between SCRC of CUT, a research active university in a low-performing member state, and four internationally-leading counterparts specializing in: (a) online social networks and their analysis; (b) entertainment, games, virtual reality and educational technologies; (c) Social Computing for social inclusion; and (d) Social Computing and social change. SCRC through this proposal does not only aim to access the core research groups of the leading counterparts, and their collaborators, but also recognizes the multidisciplinarity of the field and will try to establish itself as an intermediate between them. The NOTRE network will follow a series of interlinked activities, such as short term staff exchanges, expert visits, and short-term on-site training, workshops, conference attendance, organization of joint summer school type activities, and dissemination and outreach activities. Such activities with world-renowned EU partners (IMDEA; MIRALab of Universite de Geneve; Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas -FORTH-ICS; and the Department of Political Science of the University of Dusseldorf -UDUS), will be instrumental for significantly strengthening SCRC's research efforts, enhancing the network's innovation capacity and research profile, and stimulating scientific excellence in the emerging multidisciplinary field of Social Computing. The effective knowledge transfer and sharing through NOTRE will also push for research advancements linked to the Smart Specialization Strategy of Cyprus.

During the duration of NOTRE, the consortium has managed to facilitate a number of collaborations, ensured the presence of SCRC in various networking events and allowed for valuable training sessions between the SCRC and the international-leading partners that have hosted NOTRE meetings and offered their insights. These collaborations happened in the format of joint paper publications, presentations in top-tier conferences, workshops at international conferences and submissions of funding applications. SCRC has submitted through the duration of NOTRE 101 grant applications. Out of these 49 as coordinator and 52 as partner for the total sum of 32.477.953,43 EUR towards SCRC. From these applications, 23 have been successful with a budget of 3.293.831,48 EUR. Furthermore, public events in all partner countries and two events in Cyprus have helped raise the profile of NOTRE and SCRC significantly as these have been attended by more than 1.000 individuals worldwide (approximately 600 in Cyprus and 400 abroad). Moreover, three networking events in Cyprus industry and academia have brought world-renowned speakers from the industry such as Google and Uber to engage with SCRC academics and gather the Cypriot emerging social computing community around SCRC.

A project web site will be constructed to provide public awareness about the scope of the
project as well as information on the partners, the initial management structure, and the sub-project leaders. Also, to facilitate synergies and the flow of information, a private portion of the website will serve as a closed communication channel among the NOTRE partners. It will be used to exchange information among the partners, such as research notes and logs, drafts of papers, related literature, source code, etc.